The Morning After by Robin White (the reading list .TXT) 📖

On that morning, his bed felt strangely full and warm. Victor moaned lowly into the pillow as a massive headache reminded him of the night he had spent. Mostly with drinking, and quite possibly with other really embarrassing actions. If he now, as he thought to himself, woke up with someone in bed... Oh God. No, no, that hadn't happened, right?! Victor's look had drifted off to the side, and what he was seeing there made his breath hitch momentarily. Next to him, still drowsily blinking up at him, laid a... Victor swallowed.

"Good morning..." a slightly raspy voice hummed as the stranger looked up at him, a sleepy, contend smile on his face. Victor barely could avert his eyes from the look the other casted at him. So... warm, and full of satisfaction. For Victor, the guessing what might have happened last night was officially over. He blushed, though managed a jiggly smile before quickly averting his gaze. Whoever the stranger was, he had a look making his pulse quicken.

"Why so shy all of a sudden?" Victor flinched as the other male slowly turned towards him. A warm, strong hand gently brushed along his back, making his cheeks redden once more. Now, it might would have been better to remember exactly what had happened last night at the bar. But as his opposite looked directly into his eyes, his mind suddenly was empty.

Victor couldn't struggle in the least against the other as he was pulled closer to the stranger, the hand now stroking along his cheek. The mingling smell of sweat and aftershave wavered into his nose; not intrusive, but alluringly light and coaxing. Despite being this light, it made his head swim slightly. He had to hold back to not jump the fair-haired beauty – what already had happened, though, as it seemed. Why would he wake up like that otherwise?

He took a deep breath before looking up into those slightly shimmering eyes again. "A nice surprised to wake up like that." Victor tried to sound casual, but as the other's fingertips slowly brushed along his neck, his calm composure crumbled. A tickling sensation shuddered through his body, warm and pleasant. Almost as if he was drunk again, with the goofy smile on his face and enough courage to flirt with a complete stranger.

"You really were this heavily drunk, as it seems." The stranger sounded amused, quite indeed. Ashamed, Victor turned his head to the side as they rubbed against each other unintentionally. "Then I have to introduce myself again. Alexander, it's a pleasure." With that, the blonde shook Victor's hand with a pronouncedly teasing grin.

The flustered red-head would have preferred to just sink into the mattress and never to show up again. It didn't help in the least Alexander petted his hair, affectionately and almost cautiously. There had been many doing this, but none of them had ever done it like the blonde. Completely flustered, Victor only realized he had been toying with Alexander's hair as well as the other began to laugh. "You just can't get enough of me, huh?"

It only grew more embarrassing and confusing for Victor, which was why the red-head turned away from Alexander lightly. Luckily, the blonde understood the meaning of this movement, left him some more space. "Sorry, but you just look really sweet when you blush like that. You almost look like a tomato then... only sweeter."

For a prolonged moment, it was all quiet, while Victor tried to calm down his thoughts. Alexander had turned on his back, one arm behind his head, waiting patiently. The blonde didn't have to rush, as it was Saturday today. Though, and that was something he had to laugh about quietly, he never would have assumed to end up in an other's bed and unintentionally wound up to spend the night there. In this case, however, it seemed to be for the better. Not just that, maybe even welcomed and necessary to spare Victor from quite some confusion and embarrassment.

As the red-head had calmed down again, Alexander cautiously bowed closer. "You feel better again?" In the first moment Victor was confused, asking himself if Alexander meant the surprise in the morning. But then, a memory scrap came back to him. He only had gone to this bar because his previous boyfriend had broken up with him. He never would have gone there otherwise, and surely wouldn't have drunk that much. How unbelievably embarrassing...

"Yes... yes, I feel better." he mumbled, lost in thoughts, while toying around with the sheets. Alexander grinned broadly, while he casually scooted closer until he was close to lying on top of Victor. "Good to hear you're feeling better." the blonde whispered, the slight raspy tone in his voice well audible again. At first, Victor simply had assumed Alexander had been smoking too much, but as he didn't smell anything confirming that, it seemed like it just was the blonde's natural voice. Actually, it matched this 'the morning after' situation.

He choked back a gasp, biting his lower lip, as Alexander's hand slowly crept along his body, teasing him with much too soft touches. Did the other want to resume to what they had been doing last night? "Alexander... please, stop it..." Victor protested weakly, surprised as the blonde immediately stopped. With his ex, it would have developed into a discussion over hours, ending with painful bruises all over his body.

Now, as he was thinking about that, Victor was a bit astonished at the reason of their parting. Actually, it should have gone the other way round, and not like it had come. But he couldn't have chosen, especially not with this brute. Shuddering, Victor buried his face in the pillow again, just to feel Alexander's lips on his neck some moments later. It was only a slight touch, elusive almost... and still, it made everything inside of him melt.

He relaxed completely, not caring about what happened around him, allowing his mind to drift off. Alexander soon stopped moving, merely snuggling against Victor and being content with that. The red-head couldn't help but to smile at that. Everything was so confusing, but in a pleasant, relaxing way. With his former boyfriend, he would have had a massive headache soon enough, as his idea of something relaxing had been entirely different.

"You're thinking about him again." Alexander's sleepy, raspy voice pulled Victor back to reality. It hadn't sounded accusing, but worried. Victor merely nodded, immediately being showered with affection. That earned Alexander a happy sighing, which made the blonde chuckle in return. "I got someone really happy and relaxed there. Completely different from yesterday."

Right, the night before... Again, the same questions rose in Victor's mind. How the Hell had he managed to successfully flirt with the most attractive guy at the bar? He casted a quick glance at Alexander, who didn't seem to be in any position to move anywhere else anytime soon. How could it possibly have come this far...?

However strongly it opposed the wonderfully warm feeling in the pit of his stomach, Victor had to squirm bit to have a closer look at Alexander. The blonde slipped off him with an unwilling grumbling, half asleep and looking quite creased in a way. Which still looked quite sexy.

Before Victor could think about anything, his eyes wandered up and down Alexander's naked body, which was barely covered up to the hips. The first thing occurring to the red-head where the other's muscles. Not like a bodybuilder's, who would have borne a certain resemblance to a gorilla, more than to a human, but just well defined and good-looking. Which meant a six-pack and most possibly a nice biceps.

Lightly blushing Victor had to hold back to not reach out and try for himself if Alexander's stomach really was as strong as in his imagination. The few blurry memories coming back to him unfortunately didn't provide him any information. How Alexander looked further down, however, didn't need any visual proof. His hurting back was enough to tell him everything.

Alexander's hair still looked quite nice, despite a night with him. Victor was a bit surprised about that, as his former boyfriend often enough had been positively mussed, with a certain similarity to a crow's nest. At least something not having gone wrong completely, how Victor remarked for himself.

The blonde strands coming down to Alexander's nape and partly hanging into his face had a light reddish shimmer, still slightly damp, which Victor blamed on the night before. He bowed closer to watch Alexander's relaxed expression. Even with closed eyes, the blonde seemed to look up at him, those bright green eyes capturing him effortlessly. Deep green, like an emerald, but with much more fire and highly alive.

Victor slowly rose, just to notice he was stark naked. With a still bright red cheeks, he tiptoed to the bathroom, to splash his face with cold water. It chased off the tiredness still clinging to him, followed by an aspirin against the now thudding headache. Much better already, though it hadn't been exactly bad before, either.

As he waited for the pill to operate, Victor watched himself in the mirror. He looked tousled and confused, which pretty much complied with his inner state. No bruises, no cut lower lip, no hurting arm after having gotten it twisted a tad too much. All of that would have been sure signs for a long, painful night, but in this case, nothing. Except for the already fading pain in his lower back.

Rubbing his eyes drowsily, the red-head again stared back at his reflection. Why had Alexander come with him? Did the blonde have a certain liking for red-heads? Or was it the unusual combination of red hair and dark blue eyes, which had been the reasons for his ex to be together with him in the first place? Hesitating, Victor leaned against the wash basin, even forgetting he still was naked. However he looked at it, his and Alexander's meeting was a puzzle to him. How had it happened?

"Everything alright?" Once more, it was Alexander's voice pulling Victor out of his thoughts, as well as the reason for a blush taking over the red-head's face. He felt how the blonde wrapped his arms around his waist, face buried in the red hair. This closeness was so intense all of a sudden, it made his body react all on it's own. Quite obvious, and really embarrassing for the red-head.

Alexander only after some seconds realized what made Victor stiffen up. "I feel complimented." he chuckled teasingly, while his hand trailed down along Victor's stomach. "It's not funny!" Victor weakly protested. It merely took some well-placed touches, and he felt mesmerized. Not in a necessarily positive sense, however.

This time, it didn't need that long for the blonde to notice something wasn't quite alright. "Hey, it's okay..." Victor had started to shudder, not that far away from actually crying. He couldn't explain why he suddenly reacted this intensely to Alexander's presence. But there were no questions, just gentle sympathy. As if Alexander understood him perfectly well.

As Victor had calmed down, he suddenly felt sick. It hadn't even been a day since he had been left in the cold by his former boyfriend, and he already had someone to cope with this ugly event. Even if this already so strangely intimate closeness was pleasant, he couldn't quite respond to it. He couldn't rush and toss aside all the memories of his ex.

After quite some time, he gathered the courage to look up into